Chapter 295 Luck Is Essential

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Universal Pictures is ambitious, and wants to take advantage of the success of the "Mummy" series to use a top-level production with huge investment to bring the once brilliant and dazzling Universal movie monsters back to the audience's sight. Like Mummy, once again Create huge profits and returns for Universal Pictures.

Even, Matthew got news from Sean Daniel, and there was a discussion within Universal Pictures that if "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" can be successful, more monsters can be reappeared on the screen, and at the same time in a film. Throw in more monsters and make them work together.

However, Universal Pictures is very cautious about this suggestion. After all, the fiasco of "The Fallen Soldiers" is still fresh in my mind.

But those discussions were then temporarily suspended in Universal's written plans.

Unlike "Dawn of the Living Dead", "Van Helsing" was only released on the day it was officially released on the Rotten Tomatoes score. Only on the second day, the film's Rotten Tomatoes index was completely rotten, with a freshness of 24% and an average rating of 24%. A score of 4.3 can make people spit blood directly.

In the past, it was not that there were no films with extremely poor ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, but the box office sold well, because there is a clear difference between the tastes of summer audiences and professional film critics, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes is completely obtained by collecting the latter's film reviews.

But behind Rotten Tomatoes Freshness, there is also an audience viewing index, and the index of most of the best-selling movies is 85% or even more than 95%.

"Van Helsing" is only fifty-seven percent.

At the same time, the audience score of IMDB also came out, and the average score of 6.1 can only be said to be barely acceptable.

"The biggest failure of "Van Helsing" is that it revives those classic monster images, but fails to make them terrifying. Although the visual effects created by the film are very shocking, the story is weak, and the background of the three monsters gathering is not explained. clear."

The voices of public opinion and film critics sing badly.

Of course, for such a big investment, big production and highly publicized film, audiences and professional comments will affect the box office trend in the later stage of the film more than the box office in the first weekend.

The quality of the film itself definitely has a certain impact on the box office in the first week, but in contrast, the publicity, investment, topicality and star appeal of a big-budget film have a greater impact on the box office in the first week.

Especially now that both online and offline ticket sales in North America have been opened, if fans are interested in a film, they can sell tickets through the Internet and telephone and other channels half a month or more in advance.

Pre-pay for movie tickets.

The factors that can affect the reservation are often publicity, investment, topicality and star appeal.

In terms of the box office in the first weekend alone, although "Van Helsing" did not meet Universal Pictures' expectations of more than 60 million, its first weekend box office of $51.7 million is definitely above the average level.

However, according to the subsequent data released by various forecasting agencies, it is generally believed that "Van Helsing" will go up and down.

The data surveyed by Cinema, an authoritative forecasting agency for the North American film market, is especially unfavorable for "Van Helsing". The audience's on-site score in the theater is only "B-", and the audience has a poor reputation.

In addition, Cinema's market forecast, "Van Helsing" North American box office will fall between $ 120 million to $ 130 million.

Looking at the whole of North America, Cinema is the agency with the highest box office prediction accuracy in North America. The box office prediction accuracy rate of medium-sized and above films even exceeds 85%.

Although major studios will also hire external investigation agencies to conduct market research on the film, and then make market forecasts and adjust related publicity strategies, Cinema, as a relatively neutral investigation agency, makes predictions more objective and accurate.

Cinema’s profit model is mainly based on external sales forecast data. If there are frequent problems with the forecast data, it will soon be over.

If "Van Helsing"'s North American box office hits more than $120 million, as Cinema predicts, Universal Pictures may really cry.

On weekdays, the box office of "Van Helsing" showed a plummeting momentum, with Monday's box office plummeting 70% from last Sunday!

Even a zombie film like "Dawn of the Living Dead" with a relatively small audience did not drop so much at that time. Moreover, "Dawn of the Living Dead" is an R-rated film, while "Van Helsing" is rated PG-13.

In the working days that followed, the daily output of "Van Helsing" dropped by 15 percent every day.

It's a star, which is very much in line with Cinema's predictions.

Standing in front of the window of the office, Helen Herman looked at the street scene of Burbank outside through the glass, took off the black-rimmed glasses and placed them on the windowsill, her bright face was full of thoughts.

She was even a little fortunate in her heart. Fortunately, she and Matthew didn't get the actor in the end, otherwise...

From the current analysis of various aspects, even if the North American box office and overseas box office of "Van Helsing" are added together, it cannot offset the high production cost of "Van Helsing" and the promotion and distribution investment of more than 70 million US dollars in addition to the production cost.

If nothing else, the lead actor Orlando Bloom and the heroine Kate Beckinsale will suffer a major downturn in their careers. Orlando Bloom is okay, and has already teamed up with Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" crew. Signing a contract, coupled with the foundation of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is not without a chance to turn over.

The heroine Kate Beckinsale will no longer have first-line productions to use her as the heroine. The starring "Pearl Harbor" did not meet expectations, and there were constant bad reviews. Now "Van Helsing" is not in a good situation, let alone hit the first line. I am a star, and I have to thank God if I can keep the second-tier star's position.

Director Stephen Sommers will also be on hiatus for years, and it's uncertain when he will return to mainstream commercial production.

What if Matthew was in the film too? Helen Herman didn't need to think about it, and knew that it would bring a huge blow. At that time, when she wanted to compete for this role, "Pirates of the Caribbean" had not yet established a project to recruit actors, and there was a certain conflict in the shooting of the last two films. Matthewna When you get "Van Helsing", you may lose "Pirates of the Caribbean"...

What will be the consequences? Without the success of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the blow of "Van Helsing", Matthew would be basically finished, and the resources and energy she invested in him over the years would be wasted.

Fortunately, I was lucky, I didn't fall into the big pit of "Van Helsing", otherwise I really wouldn't be able to climb out.

Helen Herman folded her arms in her arms and recalled carefully that she and Matthew seemed to have really good luck. For Hollywood stars, luck is also essential.

Every year, a first-line big production in Hollywood turns from an opportunity to a huge pit. Even though she is very confident in herself, she knows that many times, it is too difficult to judge whether a big production is successful or not. In terms of vision, ability, market analysis and In addition to a keen sense of touch, good luck is also required.

Take "Van Helsing" as an example, the production cost is as high as 160 million US dollars, and the publicity investment exceeds 70 million US dollars. The director and producer is Stephen Sommers, who has previously directed two "Mummy" films. The success of the "Mummy" series, "The Lord of the Rings" series, and even "The Scorpion King" in recent years has also proved that this magical genre has a very high market acceptance.

This is a very reliable project in every way, so she tried her best at that time.

A reliable project did not meet expectations in the end, and there is still more than 95% possibility that it will become a Waterloo in the careers of many main creators...

Helen Herman shook his head slightly, and quickly got rid of this fortunate mood. Whether it was her or Matthew, if they wanted to develop further, they would need luck in this area in the future.

However, she will do her best to minimize the influence of luck.

In some respects, Summit Entertainment has named the project "Mrs. Smith", which is somewhat similar to "Van Helsing". From the perspective of investment and main creative personnel, it is a very reliable project.

Probably because "Van Helsing" was not doing well at the box office, Helen Herman thought a little too much.

But she recovered quickly, and the past history of Hollywood told her very clearly that those films that looked reliable were far more likely to succeed than those projects that looked unreliable.

There was a knock on the office door from outside, and then the sound of the door being pushed open sounded.

Helen Herman didn't have to look back to know that it was Matthew. She picked up the old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses and put them on her face.

"Hey, Helen!" Matthew said, seeing Helen Herman standing in front of the window, "what are you thinking?"

"It's nothing." Helen Herman turned around and glanced at Matthew, "I just think you're lucky."

This kind of thing, Matthew can neither explain nor want to explain, he said directly, "I've always been lucky, you know that."

He got himself a glass of water first, then sat on the single sofa in the office.

Helen Herman came over and sat on the other sofa next to it, and said, "It wasn't just luck, was it? I remember you weren't very active in competing for Van Helsing."

He had long expected such a situation, and Matthew also prepared his remarks and said sternly, "You have not had in-depth contact with Stephen Sommers. I have worked with him on two projects and have a certain understanding of him. The director is very capable, very thoughtful, and has a lot of ideas. I always feel that it may not be a good thing if there is no good producer to suppress him, but let him play at will."

This kind of remark doesn't need to be very convincing. He only needs to say a suitable and legitimate reason, and Helen Herman can't say anything.

Besides, wouldn't it be good to avoid jumping into a big hole?

Helen Herman just asked casually, heard Matthew's words, but didn't go into it, and then changed the subject and said, "Universal Pictures just sent me an email this morning, "Dawn of the Living Dead" yesterday Midnight was dropped from all films in America."